Tonight I Dream. Tomorrow I Do!

Category Archives: No to preservatives and colourings

Welcome to Healthy Eating...It does seem like there is a change in the trends…That more eating plans are advocating eating less processed and more healthy food which is good… I am seeing phrases like Clean Eating, Eating Pegan, Gut Health, Hemp is still being mentioned, Bitters and Un-Dieting… Let’s have a look and see if they are worth following as a diet plan…

Clean Eating…

Foods like whole grains, lean protein, healthy fats and plenty of fruits and veggies are on the menu while refined carbs, alcohol, added sugars and hydrogenated fats should be avoided or limited.

However it is a low carb diet as potatoes, rice etc are not encouraged…

Eating Pegan…

Think about combining paleo with vegan and what do you get? A trendy eating plan dubbed the pegan diet this first hit the diet world in 2014, but the philosophy has only since picked up steam. Pinterest revealed that interest in the pegan diet jumped 337% in the past year, with searches continuing to climb.

The pegan diet borrows principles from both the paleo diet and veganism. Paleo eaters try to consume only foods available in the Paleolithic era 2.6 million years ago: vegetables, fruits, nuts, fish, and meat. It usually excludes dairy, grains, sugar, legumes, oils, salt, alcohol, and coffee.

Thus Pegan was born…My thoughts very restrictive and also high in some food groups not an easy eating plan to follow

Gut Health…

Encourages eating more fermented foods, probiotics, keffir, kombucha with the aim of creating a healthy gut…Research shows that plant-based, fibre-rich diets boost the diversity of microorganisms in the gut. Ultimately, the greater the diversity of the bacteria, the greater the beneficial outcomes.

The good news is, bacteria can be altered by diet alone. That means you do not need to purchase over-the-counter high-dose probiotic supplements. a healthy can be achieved by diet although if you have a diagnosed condition see your doctor before you change to any eating plans.

I think it is always a good idea to be mindful of our gut health within the confines of a healthy diet.

Bitters…

Bitter herbs have long been used in traditional medicine to support healthy blood sugar levels. Did you know that we have 25 different receptors for bitter in the gut alone, while only one each to detect sweet and umami compounds?

Waking up those often-ignored receptors can help support healthy digestion and regulate other eating-related issues and functions.

Most veggies naturally contain more bitter substances, tipping your diet in the right direction. For best results, include those that have a stronger bitter flavour, such as kale, arugula, spinach, radicchio, dandelion greens, and broccoli others include asparagus, grapefruit and cucumbers.

Un-Dieting…

Many dietitian nutritionists are hoping that intuitive eating replaces diets altogether and hope that people will begin to recognize the futility of dieting in 2019. Diets can also be harmful to our bodies, causing increased body dissatisfaction, weight cycling, and disordered eating… I am firmly in this camp how about you ?

Hemp…

Hemp is commonly confused with marijuana. It belongs to the same family, but the two plants are very different. Marijuana is grown to contain high amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical that is responsible for its psychoactive properties. Hemp describes the edible plant seeds and only contains a trace amount of THC.

Hemp seeds can be consumed or used to produce a variety of food products including hemp milk, hemp oil, hemp cheese substitutes and hemp-based protein powder.

Hemp seeds have a mild, nutty flavour. Hemp milk is made from hulled hemp seeds, water, and sweetener. Hemp oil has a strong “grassy” flavour.

I think we will be seeing an increase in Hemp products this year as it is a hot topic …I will be following this with interest…

Personally, I don’t count calories any more, I know what foods are good to eat and which are not…

Why do people like diet plans is it because it tells you what to eat? But is it also the reason why you don’t sustain that plan…See what Sally has to say…

Sometimes faced with knowing that you need to change your eating habits creates the problem of what can I eat? You want to lose weight so you have to eat less so to start then maybe you will have to decide how you want to lose your weight( not overnight) over what time period…Sally looks at all this and breaks it all down…Plain and simply put …You are in charge so come on have a look at what you are going to do…No Fads. No quick hits, no exclusions maybe limitations …Just a sensible eating plan based on what foods you like and how they can help you lose weight…

I am still loving this piece of technology… I do like how it focuses me …I have looked Deep Sleep and REM sleep the other stage of sleep is light sleep…

Light sleep is a non-REM stage, and it’s easiest to wake up during this stage. It occurs in stages 1-2. The first stage of light sleep is a transition phase and only makes up about 3% of our total time asleep; most light sleep happens in the second stage. The second stage of light sleep consists of over half of our time asleep each night. We dream during this stage, but the dreams are not as intense as they are during REM sleep.

Typically as people age, they spend more time each night in light sleep. That makes sense as that takes up the biggest proportion of the little graph I get every day breaking my percentages in the three sleep phrases it seems there’s no specific amount of time needed in this phase although it’s not as refreshing as deep sleep. However, it is a necessary sleep stage for proper brain functioning.

Reading the news I hear that the UK is in for a heatwave which will be lovely for this Easter holiday…

Here is a recipe for one of my favourite salads…Thais certainly know how to make delicious healthy salads will ingredients I never would have thought of using…

Pomelo Salad or as it is known here Yum Som O is a wonderful light refreshing salad made with Thai Grapefruit( Pink Grapefruit) can be substituted and there is very little difference in flavour.

Ingredients:

2 Pink Grapefruit or 1 Pomelo.

12-16 peeled shrimps.

Sm.cucumber diced.

1/4 cup finely sliced shallots.

1/4 cup fresh Thai Basil or Mint.

1/4 cup Fresh coriander.

1/4 cup unsalted peanuts/cashews.

2 tbsp shredded coconut.

1 Red Chilli finely sliced.

Dressing:

Half to 1 lime.

3 tbsp Fish Sauce.

1-2 tbsp palm sugar.

1 -2 red chillies finely sliced.

Kaffir Lime leaf very finely sliced for garnish.

Let’s Cook!

Set a pot of water to boil on the stove. Add shrimp and boil for just a few minutes, until the shrimp turn pink and are plump and firm to the touch. Drain and set aside to cool.

Place shredded coconut in a dry frying pan or wok over medium-high heat and stir until coconut turns light golden brown and fragrant. Tip coconut into a small bowl to cool and set aside. Repeat with shallots frying in a little oil until golden and crispy tip into a small bowl and set aside to cool.

Prepare your grapefruit or pomelo, removing as much of the white peel as possible from the fruit. Break into bite-size pieces – 3 to 4 cups is a good amount. Set prepared fruit in a salad bowl.

Add to the bowl: cucumber, basil/mint, coriander, and fresh chilli.

Combine all dressing ingredients together in a cup, stirring well to dissolve the sugar.

To put the salad together: Add shrimp to the salad bowl, then pour over the dressing. Toss well to combine. Add most of the toasted coconut, shallots and nuts, reserving a little for garnishing, then toss again. Taste-test the salad for a balance of sweet/sour/spicy/salty. Adjust to your liking, adding more sugar if too sour. For more depth of flavour, add a little Fish Sauce. Your salad is now ready to serve. Top with reserved coconut, nuts and shredded lime leaf, and

Enjoy!

Tip: Like most Thai salad dressings, this is an oil-free dressing, so it doesn’t appear to ‘cling’ as well as oil-based dressings, naturally collecting at the bottom of your salad bowl. This isn’t a problem – just be sure to toss a little more than you would for a regular salad in order to saturate ingredients with the dressing.

This salad is better served and eaten immediately, the fresher the better. If preparing for a party, keep the dressing apart from the salad until you’re ready to eat, then toss them together just before serving.

I do hope you enjoy as this is one of my favourite salads, I do shred my Pomelo much finer though rather than having too chunky. But as with anything, it is personal preference.

Enjoy!

Thank you for reading this post I hope you have found it of benefit…Until next week…xx

Before I go just a little reminder that I have been nominated in the Bloggers Bash Awards and I am chuffed to bits and so has Sally …The voting is open until the 24th April so if you have a favourite blogger who has been nominated then the vote is still open so please make their day and cast your vote…

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there will be more on this on my blog this year

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

More and more of my blogging friends have joined me on MeWe…A social media site which is fairly new and which promises much without the restrictions some other social media sites are choosing to impose on many of us…Join me if you will onmewe.com/i/caroltaylor3

Welcome to this week’s Healthy Eating…How has your week gone? Are you finding the going tough, easy or a little in between …Good days and bad days…We all have those and we can’t change the past but we can change the future…

Why do we fail? There are lots of posts on that one…Here there are no fails as we can eat what we love just moderation with some foods…RIGHT???

If you are keeping your diaries are you seeing a pattern? What are you seeing? The same foods over and over again? or a variety?

What do I see? I see lots of variety of fruit and vegetables as I do go with fruits in season and we eat a lot of fruit…Mango and pineapple at the moment as it is plentiful…Also, the tender stem broccoli has now appeared and is beautiful…

However, as I don’t like to waste herbs and Grapow Moo( Pork) is not the same when frozen if I don’t have enough to pick and have to buy a bunch then that lasts me 4 meals so I eat that as my first meal of the day at least 3/4 times a week unless Aston is here and then only twice…It is also my all-time favourite Thai Stir Fry…

Think of all your favourite foods you like to eat and head over and read Sally’s post...You will be very surprised at what you can eat…and still lose weight…Those of you who know Sally know how vast her knowledge of foods and vitamins are …

My weight has stayed the same this week but that is ok…I have had a few extra treats…Lily is here…But that is ok…I enjoyed them …Today back to normal…

Now as you know I advocate healthy eating for all the family… if you start when the kids are young healthy eating becomes a habit just like sugar and the like…

Lily is 6 yrs old and in the school holidays, she stays with us…The remainder of the time she lives in a small, very rural Thai village …While she is here this time I have been taking her to swimming lessons…she loves the water and as Thai kids swim anywhere there is water it is very important that they learn how to swim properly although her mummy is very good and doesn’t allow her into just any water…

What I have observed since living here is that Thais do not walk anywhere and although most eat a very healthy diet they love their sugar…Sugary drinks and cakes are everywhere… In the village Lily and her mummy ride push bikes around the village they only use motorised transport when going into town and she eats what her family eat which is healthily her favourite snack here at the moment is lots of mangoes and she eats a lot of raw veg with her meals she loves raw cabbage and also the Thai pickled cabbage…Pak Dong which is cabbage, spring (green ) onions and salt…

The little group she is in for swimming consists of some children her age and some a bit older…Lily is the slenderest I would say and by far the fittest she zips down those lengths and sits on the side waiting for the others…Some really struggle about midway and have to be helped by the instructor to complete the length of the pool and to get out of the pool onto the side…Lily thinks it is because she eats her vegetables …Her words…

I see the kids arrive with a bag of crisps and a carbonated drink…In a car or on the back of a scooter…

I walk and Lily rides her bike to swimming…

The children have changed over the weeks she has been learning to swim and I am guessing have given up…Such a shame that they are unfit at 6/7 years old…

The motto is we need to teach children good habits early in life and encourage them to try different foods and if they don’t like them that’s ok..try introducing the same food in a different way a smoothie or if they are eating other fruits and vegetables then it doesn’t matter …Search for other recipes using the food they don’t particularly like and let them help cook it…A child who helps cook food will eat the food…

A good example is Cloud eggs...Many children don’t like the white of the egg but made this way it changes both the taste and appearance of the egg…These eggs were first made by my grandson when he was 12 yrs old and up until then, he didn’t eat the white of his eggs…He does now even when they are not made this way…

You will notice from the images that Aston made his own addition to the dish…Now at 14 years he is a competent cook and always cooks the meat for me he also cooks a mean steak…It is also a pleasure to watch him eat he thoroughly enjoys his food as it should be…He is not fussy and eats most things…

Lily who is 6 yrs is following in his footsteps she cuts and prepares the vegetables/ fruit for me and can use the blender and food processor…She makes lovely cakes and biscuits and can ice them beautifully.

Lily’s Beef Salad which we had for dinner the other night… The only thing I didn’t allow her to do is to cook the meat and slice it or the shallots but she prepared all the other salad and squeezed the lime for the dressing and mixed everything together…

Thai Beef Salad

Recipe for Thai Beef Salad.

Serves 2.

Ingredients:

300gm Tenderloin Beef.

1 sm red Onion or 2/3 shallots.

2 Spring Onions.

2 medium tomatoes or 8/10 cherry toms.

1 sm cucumber.

2 sprigs mint.

Big handful of Coriander.

2/3 birds eye chillies chopped.

1 lime.

2 tbsp Fish Sauce.

Let’s Cook!

Grill the tenderloin medium rare.

While steak is cooking chop salad into small pieces and chop coriander inc stalks.

Taste as personally I like more fish sauce and chillies but as the taste of chillies can vary then it is better to add less, taste and adjust seasoning if required.

This can also be made with chicken or pork.

Serve with steamed Rice or Sticky Rice.

As it has been proved so many times children who learn to cook at a young age are also far more adventurous with trying new foods and far less picky…

Smartwatch Corner…

It makes me smile this phone it sends me smart messages if I go to bed too late and when I had a few cat naps the other night it threw a wobble which made me smile…Too smart at times but I take it for what it is … It focuses me…But I do find the sleep patterns really interesting …I have never thought about sleep too much …Head, pillow die is me and I can just sleep anywhere hard/soft mattress if tired I sleep… But have also kept some late hours at times and now I know that it isn’t conducive to good health at my age so I am trying to be disciplined with my sleep.

What is Deep Sleep?

Adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night. But, I now know that it is the quality of sleep you get that matters.

While you rest, your body goes through different stages of the sleep cycle. Deep sleep, for example, is the stage of sleep you need to feel refreshed when you wake up in the morning. Unlike rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, deep sleep is when your body and brain waves slow down.

I also didn’t know that you went through different stages more than once during your sleep cycle approx every 90 minutes…Deep sleep is the cycle which it is hard for you to be woken from and if woken you can feel extremely groggy.

The correct amount of deep sleep is important during your sleep cycle as this is when the glucose metabolism in the brain increases this supports short-term and long-term memory and overall learning.

Deep sleep is also when the pituitary gland secretes important hormones, like human growth hormone, leading to growth and development of the body.

Other benefits of deep sleep include:

Energy restoration, cell regeneration, increasing blood supply to muscles, promoting growth and repair of tissues and bones AND strengthening the immune system. All very important to your health and well being…

It seems like the new diet trend predicted for 2019 is the hemp diet…Obviously, it is nothing new to food and body care lovers and is used a lot in vegan diets…but due to the interest in CBD for health, it has caused added interest and those who predict trends think it will be on the rise in 2019…Already products like dried pasta and I have noticed an increase in hemp seeds for sale and recipes using hemp seeds.

Also bitter foods like asparagus, grapefruit and cucumbers because of their benefits to your gut and of course your liver if you are on a detox regime…

My conclusion it certainly sounds like there is a move to eating more fruit/vegetables and an increase in interest in maintaining gut health which is a step in the right direction.

Thank you for reading this post I hope you have found it of benefit…Until next week…xx

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there will be more on this on my blog this year

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

More and more of my blogging friends have joined me on MeWe…A social media site which is fairly new and which promises much without the restrictions some other social media sites are choosing to impose on many of us…Join me if you will onmewe.com/i/caroltaylor3

Welcome to this week’s Healthy Eating…How has your week gone? Are you finding the going tough, easy or a little in between …Good days and bad days…We all have those and we can’t change the past but we can change the future…

Cutting out the Samsung and soda( although) the soda was just carbonated water, the biscuits with my tea and increasing my exercise is working wonders… I have lost another 1.9 kilos this week although I am sure Sunday’s trip to the park helped greatly…He who shall not be named said let’s go down this road it will be quicker…To give you an idea a trip to the park from my house and back is probably around 4,000 steps…I clocked nearly 12,000 steps…Needless to say, he who shall be nameless will be ignored if he ever suggests a shortcut again…

I am really pleased as got to think ing about a goal weight and I fixed one in my head and my very smart watch also suggested one which was similar to what I had decided …That was until I read my friend Sally post over at Smorgasbord magazine where she talked in-depth about our ideal weight and how to calculate it…It was 10 kg less than my smartwatch and mine which was only based on what I used to weigh when I married and thinking I was too thin then and it wouldn’t suit me now and I have had children…

My decision was to split the difference which is 5 kg less than my original target…

I will now hand you over to Sally because quite frankly Size Matters to most of us for different reasons but it also matters that we are happy and healthy and eat a balanced diet…

Once you have popped over to Sally’s and worked out your ideal weight…If it seems a lot cut it down into small targets and it could take a year or even more but by that time you and your family will all be eating healthily and be fit and well…

It will become much more of a lifestyle if all the family is included …Healthwise many of the chronic diseases today are caused by our lifestyles and what we eat… We are allowing these manufacturers to get away with murder as that is what it can amount to…Gone are the days when we could buy food safe in the knowledge that it was good for us…

We may be busy and work 24/7 or not have much money to spare but healthy eating requires thought and action and need not be expensive.

The kids don’t like vegetables or salad or ?????

If they are hungry they will eat… If they help grow or prepare and cook their food…They are more likely to eat it… We need to be sneaky as parents…Yep, you heard…A slice of tomato or beetroot, a piece of carrot in their smoothie and they won’t know they will just love the taste…Who doesn’t love a smoothie?? But it gets that veg down them and as they get older …tell them the truth…

Generally, fussy parents begat fussy kids so before you say you don’t like something think you might be making your kids even fussier! That is the truth it wasn’t until we had our restaurant that I realised many of the adults were fussier than the kids …Grown men who wouldn’t touch a vegetable at all..but happily down 10 pints of beer with crisps…True…

Where to start???

I would start by clearing my food cupboards, fridge and freezer… Read the packets with the kids, look up the words you don’t know do a little research, learn how they affect the human body and our kids, learn what chronic diseases they are linked to…Take charge…Decide what preservatives and chemicals you or your children shouldn’t be exposed to… Know what foods they are in… Boycott those foods…Don’t buy them…

Make them a smoothie who doesn’t love a smoothie?

Papaya, Banana and Lime Smoothie.

This one has just 4 ingredients.

Half a papaya…. seeds removed.

1 banana

4 fl oz of coconut milk

1-1 1/2 limes. I like to taste the lime so I would add one and a half hubby prefers just 1 lime.

But like with anything….and you know what I am going to say…Don’t you??? TASTE.

Blitz the papaya and banana with the coconut milk then add your lime juice, Taste and add more if required.

Pour into a chilled glass and enjoy!

If you want a more frozen smoothie then just freeze the papaya and banana. I always keep bags of frozen fruit for smoothies…I just didn’t want brain freeze today…haha.

Sometimes I add a few slices of tomato, carrot, beetroot it is a great way to get some veggies and with fruit, they taste great…

Smartwatch Corner…

I am still impressed with my new toy…I will say it keeps me focused…

There is also more and more growing evidence that eating fat doesn’t make us fat it is the sugar we eat which makes us fat…

Which leads me to what I have discovered that Fitbit and Apple are exploring a little known technology which could be the answer to healthy eating and peak performance.

Fitbit, Apple, and Google are investing in continuous glucose monitors that let people track their blood sugar and see how food affects their body.

Usually used only by diabetics, the devices could provide key insight to other people who want to eat better, lose weight, and even improve athletic performance.

It is a really interesting article as yes I want to look after my body even at this time of my life BUT I know I feel better for losing weight, cutting out processed and foods which have added sugars but I can’t see inside my body and really know immediately how a certain food reacts and effects me…

I think that is why the sleep patterns interest me as every day I can see how long I slept, how much time I was in each stage of sleep and whether it is normal, low or high with an explanation…

I am really getting into this sleep malarkey or understanding how beneficial to our health and bodies sleep is… I now also know that when I was drinking and sometimes it was in excess of the daily recommended guidelines …A couple of times I woke suddenly, panicked and eventually calmed down but found it difficult to get back to sleep…It scared me… It was because the alcohol was affecting my REM sleep…

How to improve REM sleep

There are several ways to enhance both REM and NREM sleep to reap the benefits of a good night’s sleep. The following tips may help improve REM sleep:

Establish a bedtime routine

Following the same bedtime routine, every night prepares the body and mind for sleep. A regular bedtime routine may help to maximize the amount of time asleep, potentially increasing the number of REM sleep phases experienced.

Reduce nighttime awakening.

Bright lights can interrupt sleep. For optimal sleeping conditions, switch off cell phones and other sources of noise, and remove light sources from the bedroom. Keep temperatures between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit.

Get enough sleep

A healthy adult requires 7-9 hours of sleep a night. Sleeping less than this reduces the number of REM sleep phases experienced.

As moderate to high levels of alcohol intake before bed can reduce the number of REM sleep phases experienced, and any amount delays entering the first REM phase, it is advisable to avoid alcohol consumption in the hours before bed.

A regular bedtime and an excess of the hard stuff were causing mine and as I haven’t had a repeat of that for a while I think I am correct.

Thank you for reading and please tell me in comments your thoughts if you have a smartwatch and how you get on with it…x

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there will be more on this on my blog this year

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

More and more of my blogging friends have joined me on MeWe…A social media site which is fairly new and which promises much without the restrictions some other social media sites are choosing to impose on many of us…Join me if you will onmewe.com/i/caroltaylor3

Welcome to this week’s Healthy Eating…How has your week gone? Are you finding the going tough or easy or a little in between …Good days and bad days…We all have those and we can’t change the past but we can change the future…

Diets particularly faddy Diets come and go…Have you ever wondered why? Have you ever wondered why one-minute your favourite celeb supports this product and the next minute that product…It is called laughing all the way to the bank and it isn’t YOURS!

As you know I advocate eating healthy balanced meals I don’t believe in cutting out food groups like meat, most fruits or pasta/rice/potatoes…I do believe we should avoid or eat little highly processed foods, food with added sugars, we should choose good quality cooking oils, avoid excessive intake of high mercury fish like tuna…Alcohol enjoy just not in excess.

For me, that is easy to follow and coupled with the 16/8 intermittent fasting and exercise I am seeing results.

That hasn’t always been the case...At this moment I am the lightest I have been for a good few years …All I do is eat smart, eat healthily ( most) of the time and exercise my chosen exercise is walking

Before you start a new fad eating plan, ask yourself, “Can I eat this way for the rest of my life?” If your answer is no, then it may be the plan is not for you. Following rigid menus can be hard, overwhelming, costly and simply not necessary.

Eating plans which tell you…Lose weight without exercising… Are a load of b***shyte…Quite frankly…

If you want to read a good eating plan then Sally has one for you…If you are new to this blog Sally is my partner in the kitchen I do the food she dishes out the why you should eat healthily and the lady knows…

Because quite frankly Size Matters to most of us for different reasons but it also matters that we are happy and healthy and eat a balanced diet…

Regular exercise is essential for good health and weight management. Your goal should be to discover physical activities you enjoy and strive to complete those for 30-60 minutes most days of the week.

The moral to the story is if you want to maintain a healthy weight, build muscle and lose fat — all while enjoying life to its fullest — eat smart and get moving.

What do I eat and Drink...? Do you keep a Food Diary? I do and it helps…

I drink two pots of green tea a day, one glass of fresh coconut juice and lots of water…I also if I feel a throat or cold coming on love a drink of hot water and ginger with some honey…

My snacks as I have very recently cut out processed foods and foods with added sugar…are whatever fruit is in season…At the moment it is Apples, mango, pineapple and durian fruit…Durian is very high in nutrients compared to most fruits. Also when I slice my apple I have a small slice of cheddar or blue cheese

My lunch today was Tom Yum Goon( Prawns)

If I am at home I make my own but this was at a local Thai restaurant and it contained quite a few noodles which I didn’t eat all…Why? Because I planned to have a mango ice cream which I thoroughly enjoyed…

The food I eat is all food I love to eat and eating should be enjoyable…Shouldn’t it? There is nothing to say that you cannot eat what you love to eat and still lose weight. I believe because I gave it a bit of a boost by cutting out my alcohol, soda plus rice, added sugar and processed food I have given my body a bit of a wake-up…But the scales don’t lie and since the 5th Feb…I have lost 13lb…Nearly a stone…

In the 17 days since I had my smartwatch, I have lost 2.6 kg which is 5.5 lbs…I am pleased with this as I had come to a little bit of a standstill but it has focused me and although I don’t do 10,000 steps every day yet I do walk considerably more than I did…

Smartwatch Corner.

I am still impressed with my new toy…I will say it keeps me focused…

My sleep now is getting more regular and I feel much better…I sort of thought we just went to sleep and I knew it had benefits but didn’t take too much notice…I do now and no I am not obsessed I just want to look after this body to the best of my ability while also enjoying life…

Sleep explained:-

Stage 1 is the lightest stage of NRM sleep. Often explained by the presence of slow eye movements, this drowsy sleep stage can be easily disrupted causing awakenings or arousal. Muscle tone throughout the body relaxes and brain wave activity begins to slow from that of being awake. Occasionally people may experience hypnic jerks or abrupt muscle spasms and may even experience a sensation of falling while drifting in and out of Stage 1.

Stage 2 is the first actual stage of defined NRM sleep. Awakenings or arousal do not occur as easily as in Stage 1 sleep and the slow-moving eye rolls discontinue. Brain waves continue to slow with specific bursts of rapid activity known as sleep spindles intermixed with sleep structures known as K complexes. Both sleep spindles and K complexes are thought to serve as protection for the brain from awakening from sleep. Body temperature begins to decrease and heart rate begins to slow down.

Stage 3 is known as deep NRM sleep. The most restorative stage of sleep, stage 3 consists of delta waves or slow waves. Awakenings or arousal are rare and often it is difficult to awaken someone in Stage 3 sleep. Sleepwalking, sleep talking and night terrors can occur during the deepest stage of sleep.

REM sleep, also known as rapid eye movement, is most commonly known as the dreaming stage. Eye movements are rapid, moving from side to side and brain waves are more active than in Stages 2 & 3 of sleep. Awakenings and arousal can occur more easily in REM; being woken during a REM period can leave one feeling groggy or overly sleepy.

I love this app as it gives me the percentages of each cycle and whether my sleep in that period is normal, high or low…Also how long I slept in each cycle…I have adjusted my sleep patterns to make them more regular because they were not but I am feeling the benefit…It also tells you the quality of your breathing which to me is quite important and thankfully I am within normal guidelines I have only dipped below once…But handy to know why and it also tells you how many times you woke up…Quite clever I think…For someone who is not a fan of big brother or gadgets…I love my smartwatch…

What I do find amusing is the little green man who buzzes and waves at me when I have been inactive for a while…So far today I have completed 6630 steps and he is still waving at me if I sit for too long without moving…But he has not succeeded in winding me up yet I quite like him…

Thank you for reading and please tell me in comments your thoughts if you have a smartwatch and how you get on with it…x

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there will be more on this on my blog this year

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

More and more of my blogging friends have joined me on MeWe…A social media site which is fairly new and which promises much without the restrictions some other social media sites are choosing to impose on many of us…Join me if you will onmewe.com/i/caroltaylor3

In this series we look at cooking and your diet from a different perspective. Usually we emphasize the health benefits of food and how they can be incorporated into your diet. But, what happens if you do NOT include them in your diet.

We wanted to share with you what happens if your body is deprived of individual nutrients over an extended period of time.

Thankfully most of us eat reasonably well, with plenty of variety, but if you take a look at a week’s worth of meals, do you find that you are sticking to a handful of foods, all the time.

Variety is key to good health, to provide your body with as broad a spectrum of nutrients as possible that the body needs. Taking a supplement or relying on shakes and bars to provide your daily allowance of vitamins and nutrients is not in your body’s best…

Good morning…We have had some much-needed rain my curry plant which I moved is now sprouting I have stopped watering that as ( hubby) was overzealous and it didn’t like it. My sourdough is looking good…Fingers crossed dogged persistence seems to be paying off…I am nothing if not stubborn…haha…I give myself the same talk every day…

Who do you cheat??? Yourself!

The fibre in our diets was the topic last week and it raised some interesting questions…

I am sure you are right about our fibre intake being too low, Carol. Wild rice is nice but it takes a long time to cook.

Yes, it does …However…I know wild rice takes longer to cook however to cut down on the cooking time for brown or wild rice, soak it overnight. For brown rice, the water-to-rice ratio is 2 to 1. For wild rice, cover with a generous amount of water, several inches above the rice. Soak the rice in a covered pot and keep in the refrigerator about six hours or overnight. It works a treat and even hubby ate some yesterday and that was a first he is getting quite adventurous in his old age…

I always use wholemeal flour for baking and brown basmati rice – I love the smell when it’s cooking. But I encounter great opposition when I try to sneak in wholemeal pasta! However, Cyberspouse does make a great vegetarian bolognaise with mushrooms, a can of five beans, peppers, courgettes and of course tomato, onion and garlic.

Janet has the same problem I have always encountered and we have to be sneaky…haha…Isn’t it funny how families can be opposed to some changes try making your own using half and half whole wheat flour to start and colouring with a vegetable colour…My grandkids love the coloured pasta. Cyberspouse’s spag bol sounds nice I love mixed beans.

But if they are getting adequate fibre from your baking and rice depending on how much pasta they are consuming in a week does it matter?… I would do sneaky, sneaky, slowly, slowly…haha Or get them to help make pasta it is known fact that what you help cook you are more likely to eat/try…Good Luck 🙂 x

There were also comments about how increasing fibre in the diet had helped with medical conditions and how doctors are recommending that we increase our fibre which is lovely to hear please keep those comments and experiences coming everyone loves to hear what works and if something doesn’t for you …Did you try an alternative that did? no one size fits all we need to experiment and find what we like to eat and what improves our health.

My alcohol-free February is going well day 14 TODAY and I feel great…Tummy is a little flatter I have increased my fibre and am cutting out those added sugar items eating lots of lovely fruit…my new favourite smoothie is tomatoes and passionfruit just whizz them together with some crushed ice ..very nice …I love passionfruit and there are lots at the moment so a lovely way to use them…

I know sometimes if you are trying to lose some pounds, eat healthily and we get those urges to just eat. It does seem that sometimes we try so very hard and are met with problems around every corner sometimes it is not us…There is a real reason and there may be something we can do … Sally’s posts are great, informative, sensible advice …Factual and common sense… Sally said…

I explored the physical events in my life from childhood that might have resulted in the inability to sustain a healthy weight. Whilst I could pinpoint a hormonal imbalance from puberty, and a cycle of crash dieting as contributors to my eventual morbid obesity. It was the more important discovery of a series of extended courses of antibiotics at age 10, that was to result in a breakthrough.

It is not just my health that was compromised, many millions of the population, particularly in developed countries also have been put at risk, with an estimated 70% of us with a candida albicans overgrowth, seriously undermining our health.

What is Candida Albicans

Candida is a fungal infection of the intestine. There is a delicate balance of bacteria in our gut and it works very much like a waste-disposal unit. However, certain conditions can activate…

Of course, I cannot go without leaving you with an easy and healthy recipe…

Thai food is a great choice for gluten-free and dairy-freeeaters because it is rice-based and uses a lot of coconut milk. … Traditional Thai soy sauce is gluten-free, but just be careful when eating out as restaurants may use wheat-basedChinese soy sauce.

Thai food is low on carbs, includes lots of fresh vegetables and herbs and most dishes are cooked very quickly so everything retains its colour and flavour, in fact, preparation most times takes longer than the actual cooking.

This Larb recipe can be made using chicken or Pork. I have used Pork Mince for this.

Larb Moo.

Ingredients: Serves 1-2 people.

200 gm Pork or chicken mince.

3 shallots finely sliced.

2 spring onions finely sliced green tops as well.

A handful of fresh Mint, pick the leaves from stem and tear the leaves into large pieces( mine is a big handful) I love mint.

A handful of fresh coriander chopped.

A few Thai Basil leaves for the decoration.

I Lime use half to a whole lime juice depending on personal taste.

Dried chillies..dry roasted in a pan and grind in pestle and mortar.

1 large tbsp toasted rice. ( recipe below)

1-2 tbsp Fish Sauce.

A small amount of palm sugar….I use it sparingly or not at all.

Lets Cook!

Using a small saucepan dry cook the mince, I add a small amount of water to stop it from sticking.

Stir until cooked, remove the pan from the heat.

Stir in toasted rice, sm amount palm sugar, chilli( as desired) start with 1 tsp and once all ingredients added ..taste and add more if required.

Stir in the mint and coriander, shallots and spring onions, stir well but carefully.

Add fish sauce and half of the lime juice.

Taste! if required add more chilli, fish sauce and or lime juice and Taste again as lime and chilli. Put in a serving dish.

Garnish with Thai Basil leaves.

Serve with steamed organic brown or wild rice /Thai sticky rice or if you don’t want to eat rice it is lovely served in lettuce cups.

Thai’s eat a lot of raw vegetables with Larb which is why it’s a fairly healthy meal and if a chicken is used it has even fewer calories.

It is an ideal dish if you are watching the calories as are many Thai dishes.

NB: To make the dried rice mix, Take a thick bottomed pan and put it on a medium to low heat, cover bottom with uncooked sticky rice( if you don’t have any) normal rice will do. Stir until rice turns a golden brown colour, tip into pestle and pound until powdery but slightly coarse.

N.B. Glutinous rice is gluten-free. The misleading name simply comes from the fact that glutinous rice gets glue-like and sticky when cooked. … It all comes down to starch content.

You can store the rice in a small container and it will keep for 6-8 weeks…

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I do…I love this salad.

Having lived here 7 years and just discovering that this salad mix can also be shaped into little patties fried in a little oil and you have those lovely little Thai cakes they serve as a snack… Wrapped in a cabbage leaf and a squeeze of lime juice they are very tasty… You live and learn ..Don’t you?

That’s all from me for this week I hope you have enjoyed this post…How is your healthy eating going ???

Thank you for reading this post I am happy that you joined me today for our little chat on how we can improve the health of both our body and our purse/wallet.

I hope you thought so too xxx

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there will be more on this on my blog this year

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

Goodmorning I see those little Christmas imps are sneaking up on us…Where does the time go? Now you just know it is going to fly by…Don’t You??

Today I am going to talk about eating habits… What works for you when you are trying to eat healthily and maybe cut down on some things???

I am not an advocate for diets which cut out whole food groups..unless of course, it is for a medically diagnosed condition as we should be eating a balanced diet with a touch of moderation thrown in…Faddy diets rarely work in the long term and I am watching with interest WW new ideas on eating…

Myself I follow the intermittent fasting way of eating...Quite by chance, I will add… It is quite hot here most of the time and once I get in front of my laptop and start writing before I know it it is nearly lunch time and most days all I have had is a cup of tea which hubby makes and my glass of ACV, honey and ginger or maybe a fresh coconut water…

Which is how this intermittent fasting started…I then either make a smoothie or cook a Thai stir-fry.

Spoiler Alert!

The recipes for some which I have written for my Wednesday post over at Sally’s aka Smorgasbord Magazine…Which is to be published tomorrow…

Then it is either back to my keyboard or shopping…If shopping I stop and have an Orange and carrot smoothie..which is my current favourite smoothie …

Then it is time to get the evening meal and sundowner when we sit outside and have a sundowner and talk about our day… I may then have a small snack of some homemade salsa which is awesome…I love it and so does Aston…

My quick salsa recipe…

3 medium to large fresh tomatoes, skinned and chopped or this week I bought some beautiful cherry toms from the farmers market so I used them.

1/2 red pepper de-seeded and chopped very finely..

2/3 shallots finely chopped

Juice of 1/2- 1 lime

1 small red chilli (optional) chopped

1 tablespoon of fresh chopped cilantro leaves.

Salt and pepper to taste.

I just blitz mine quickly in the food processor to make it fine and it just mixes the flavours a little better I think but hand chopping is also fine whatever suits you.

Then it’s dinner and whatever I am cooking maybe a curry or another stir-fry or a salad.

It is then back to the laptop and a glass or two of water and sleep…

I don’t eat after my evening meal…

Therefore the other day when I was reading an interesting post about intermittent fasting The penny dropped and I realised yes that’s what I do but also I discovered how our body reacts to food at different times of the day… It all fell into place… A really interesting post …

My post yesterday was about processed foods and what they were and the fact that not all processed foods are unhealthy …Processed foods are any food which has untaken a process to either make it palatable or extend the life i.e Freezing, canning, baking.

The link is here in case you missed it and also there is a link to an app which allows you to scan the barcode of an item and it will display the amount of sugar, salt or fat in that item it will also offer better alternatives so a really useful app to have on your phone I mean who has tried to read a food label…

Although I am sitting here in the warm the mornings and nights are a bit colder and I need a shawl for my shoulders I know many of you are experiencing very cold weather, in that case, my advice and what I used to do was keep a pot of soup on the stove and if I came in from the cold or had a break from writing there was always a nice warming cup or bowl of goodness I could have and it staved off those hunger pains.

I hope you are enjoying these healthy eating posts and please if you have any hints and tips then I will post them and link back to you…xxx

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!